June 30. The only day on the legislative calendar, or any calendar for that matter, that lasts much longer than 24 hours. So here is your thread for following the last minute last second backroom deals.

Post anything you hear here for discussion. And you can follow the twitter stream of the Delaware House Dems for more info. And if you post on Twitter or Facebook, use the hash tag #DEJune30.

I want to take special note of the work that newly-elected Representative Paul Baumbach did this year to get both landowners and residents to agree on a bill to set some limits on rent increases for manufactured home residents. Working with Senator Bruce Ennis, who has championed this issue for years, Paul helped do what the General Assembly had been unable to do for well over a decade. Thousands of manufactured home residents, many of them on fixed incomes, will benefit when the Governor signs the bill this afternoon. Paul was quietly effective, and even after the bill’s passage has sought little attention for himself — but he deserves it. Kudos to both him and Senator Ennis.

Indeed, Paul Baumbach hit Leg Hall running and has been a progressive champion.

We’re gonna have drama after all!Democrats vs. fellow Democrat Chip Flowers. I support the Democrats not named Chip Flowers, and so should you. Here’s why. Chip Flowers claims that he has the power to invest state money, money that goes to fund state pensions. He is the only treasurer in memory to make that claim. Other treasurers have recognized that the responsibility for making these determinations rests with the Cash Management Policy Board, of which the Treasurer is but one member. Flowers wants to play cowboy in search of higher investment returns. He’s even hired some guy to look at how to increase performance. He hasn’t hired anyone to warn him of imprudent risk. This is precisely the type of fiscal irresponsibility that left scores of public pension funds in shambles throughout the country following the financial scandal. Delaware, which had invested its money prudently and conservatively, remained in strong fiscal condition, and so did state pensions. If Chip Flowers wants to gamble, let him do so at a racino or online or in the market with his own money. As a pensioner of the state, the last thing I want is for him to do is play the market with our money.

The proposed bill essentially does to Flowers what earlier legislation did to the Sheriff of Nuttingham–make clear that he can’t overstep his bounds and/or create new imaginary powers for himself. For the sake of my fellow pensioners, I hope it passes.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Brian Sims (D) of Philadelphia introduced a Marriage Equality bill in the Pennsylvania State House after the DOMA decision, and he sought to speak to the chamber supporting his bill. Sims is openly gay, the first openly gay lawmaker in Pennsylvania. And he was not allowed to address the chamber. Why? Because a fascist theocratic bigot disguised a supposed freedom loving Republican, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, raised the following procedural objection:

“I did not believe that as a member of that body that I should allow someone to make comments such as he was preparing to make that ultimately were just open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God’s law,” Metcalfe had told WHYY of Philadelphia.

I am fracking floored. Metcalfe must be impeached. Whomever sustained the objection must be expelled from the chamber. (Yeah, today I am on a “kicking the evil GOP out of office” theme). For they both have just violated the Federal and State Constitution by endorsing a state religion and approving a religious test, both of which are explicitly forbidden by both Constitutions.

Earlier this week, lost in the hub bub surrounding the Supreme Court’s decisions on DOMA, Prop 8 and the Voting Rights Act, was this revelation that the IRS Inspector General’s report on the IRS was deliberately limited to only discussing Tea Party groups, and the IG says it was Congressional Republicans who ordered this limitation. We now know that the IRS targets both tea party groups and progressive groups, singling out the terms progressive and occupy in 2011 just as they singled out tea party and patriot. Thus, it would appear that the Inspector General perjured himself before the House Oversight Committee when he said the IRS targeting was limited to the conservative groups and terms.

The Treasury inspector general (IG), whose report helped drive the IRS targeting controversy, says it limited its examination to conservative groups because of a request from House Republicans. A spokesman for Russell George, Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, said they were asked by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) “to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations.”

Darrell Issa must be arrested for obstruction of justice at once. If he had any honor he would resign, as should every single Republican on that committee. They purposefully and with malice aforethought attempted to create a scandal where none existed. And in so doing, they interfered with the investigation into what actually happened at the IRS.

HB88 is a bill that sought to better define (so it could actually be enforced) procedures by which dangerous mentally ill persons could be restricted from firearm ownership, but also creates a path to let those restricted demonstrate that they are no longer dangerous and able to manage their gun rights. This is a great bill — one that was worked hard by the House, to ensure that concerns of all sides were reasonably dealt with and it passed the House 40-1. A bipartisan victory by any stretch of the imagination — and it means that the House reached a remarkable consensus on this issue. This bill was sent to the Senate, who voted it down tonite 6 – 13, with 2 not voting. One of the not voting was Bryan Townsend (D-11), which surprised a great many people. Cathy Cloutier voted NO on this, even though she is reported as telling folks she would vote YES. Michael Barbieri is the bill’s primary sponsor, and I am told that he needs to get just one Senator who voted NO to bring it back to the floor.

To say that this defeat is a surprise is an understatement. It’s overwhelming majority in the House should have been an indication to the Senate of just how well this bill had been worked. In addition, the NRA was NEUTRAL on this bill — as good as it gets on a gun measure. How did it get defeated? Ever hear of a group called First State Liberty?

It is run by Eric Boye, who is plenty new here. And I understand that after HB88 passed in the House, a campaign of robocalling began to get people to contact Senators on this issue. As is often the case, the robocall was more about scaring people than actually informing them. This group is toxic enough that even the Delaware State Sportsmans Association has warned its membership about this group — saying that is is a counterfeit organization that is run by persons with their own interests at heart, rather than those of gun owners

That’s the name of this new video from the DNC — which appeared shortly after I was wondering whether the Dems can capitalize on the GOP’s failed rebranding. This is *quite* good! More like this please (and get your members to say this stuff in front of cameras) (approx. 2.25 minutes long)

Conventional wisdom holds that the Republicans will hold the House in 2014. Indeed, typically, the President’s party in the six year midterm suffers an average loss of 26 seats. The only time in recent memory that the President’s party has actually gained seats was in 1998, when the Democrats gained in the House as the backlash against the partisan impeachment of Bill Clinton began.

And even if the Dems won the national popular vote again as they did in 2012, the Republicans have been so ruthless and skilled in their gerrymandering efforts that it will take a Democratic popular vote win of at least 8 points to win the House by 1 seat. So there is reason why all the Vegas money is on the GOP keeping control of the House next year. But the first Democracy Corps Congressional Battleground survey of the competitive House races this year has some encouraging news for Democrats.

Now the days dwindle down to a precious few two… Today and Sunday, and it’s a wrap for the first session of the 147th Delaware General Assembly. We are not in the denouement phase just yet, but we’re getting there. The Senate will give final approval to the Budget Bill today, the House will likely […]

This week has been a banner one for the GOP, and its only Wednesday. First, with respect to reaching out to minorities, which the GOP HAS TO DO IF IT EVER WANTS TO WIN ANOTHER ELECTION AGAIN, we have their celebration of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and their zeal in passing as many Voting Restriction Laws as possible so as to prevent minorities from voting. As Bill Clinton rightly says, you can never vote for someone who doesn’t want you to vote in the first place. So Strike One for the GOP.

Second, on the same minority outreach issue, we have Speaker Boehner telling his Republican colleagues in the House that he will not bring the Senate Immigration Bill to the floor, which essentially means that the GOP will kill immigration reform. And that means what was a horrible Romney loss of 70-30 among Latinos in 2012 will grow to 90-10 in 2016 if not higher, which of course means the GOP will never again win the Presidency. Well, that is a little hyperbole on my part. I suppose if the GOP wins all of the white vote, and I mean all of it, 100%, it could win a close Bush-Gore repeat here and there between now and 2050, when whites will be a minority in America. So good job on that one, Boehner.

Third, we have all the GOP efforts to again discuss rape in the context of their shared zeal to end reproductive freedom in this country. The latest example is that idiot Texas State Representative saying on Monday that Rape Kits clean out the victim so as to prevent pregnancy when defending SB5’s lack of a exception for rape and incest victims. Yeah, ok. Send her back to biology class please, or at least have a detective explain to her what a Rape Kit is. Well, that was all in prelude to last night’s wonderful events where Texas State Senator Wendy Davis stood up for women’s rights and reproductive freedom and filibustered the bill until it was dead.

Well, on Twitter, very dumb conservative males have started using this hashtag: #SitDownWendy. That was in response to the hashtag in use last night in support of Senator Davis, #standwithwendy. Yes, the first thing you always do when trying to bridge the Gender Chasm and attract more women voters to your ideology and party is to tell another woman to sit down and shut up. It does wonders for the party image among women. Another conservative hashtag in use is #wendymakemeasandwhich. Nice.

So with the GOP going to great great pains to alienate minorities and women, the GOP better embrace homosexuality soon since they are going to need white men to start breeding with each other, not to mention advances in medical science, which they are also against.

But on that score… not so much. As those conservative Republicans who did speak out today in horror at the Supreme Court’s landmark marriage equality decisions made sure to attack homosexuality as a sin and classified gays as second class inferior citizens destined for Hellfire.

So good work, GOP. Really, we Democrats could not do a better job defining you all as out of touch discriminatory bigots than the job you are doing yourselves.

Last night was something pretty amazing to see. Texas State Senator Wendy Davis filibustered the unconstitutional and rape-approving Abortion Ban for nearly 13 hours, until the Republicans played some trickery to end it. You see, in Texas, when you filibuster a bill, your comments in filibustering have to be germane to the bill you are filibustering. So you cannot just stand up there and read the phone book. Seems like a fair rule. Well, it depends on how you apply it. The Republicans felt the term “Sonogram” was not germane to a discussion of abortion. Well, the chamber descended into chaos at that ruling, with the galley, packed with Davis’ supporters and supporters for women’s rights and reproductive freedom, began shouting “LET HER SPEAK” repeatedly, and would not shut up to let Lt. Governor Drew Dewhurst run the chamber. I passed out around there, but I gather that the Democrats filed motion after motion appealing the ruling, and I gather that they were successful in running out the clock to midnight. Under Texas law, the legislative session ends at midnight on the 25th of June, and no bill passed after that is considered a validly passed law. The Republicans, of course, ignored the law and passed the bill anyway. So expect court battles over that. For more info, see here.

I’m disappointed that HB165(Jaques) passed, and will be signed by the Governor today. But the Senate also passed two bills sponsored by Sen. Townsend that will make that passage at least a little more palatable. SB 147 creates more of a partnership between charters and public schools, including the sharing of ‘best practices’. Here is the 17-4 roll call. SB 148:

promotes transparency in government spending relating to competitive grants administered by the Department of Education by requiring that the Department publish on its website the eligibility requirements, criteria and successful applications for every competitive grant it administers.

I believe that the Markell Administration has signed off on both bills. Seriously, you don’t see legislating of this quality very often in Dover. A lesson to legislators: If you know you’re gonna lose on an issue, at least try to get something positive out of it. Sometimes you succeed. And thanks to the Markell Administration for working with Sen. Townsend on this.

SS1/SB33(Ennis) got final Senate approval and heads to the Governor. Yay!! The two bitter holdouts who voted no were Bloviator Bonini and, wait for it, Pope Pompous I, formerly Monsignor Lavelle. To quote the parrot from ‘Aladdin’, “Why am I not surprised?”